THE AMERICAN BEE JOURNAL. 



459 



Dry Weather.— Chas. II. Green (2.50 

 —16(1), Berlin,© Wis., on July 11, 188.'5, 

 writes : 



Bees are very strong in numbers, but 

 they are not storins much surplus yet, the 

 weather liaving been too dry ; but we 

 liave just liail a glorious rain, and I think 

 that we will get a good average crop yet. 



That Bee-Keeper's Staff, etc.— II. L. 



Zwiener, Blooming Prairie,? Minn., 

 on July 10, 188-5, says : 



I am a beginner in practical bee-keep- 

 ing, and I am willing to help defend the 

 bee-keeper's rights in every respect, or at 

 least so far as I am able. I heartily en- 

 dorse Mr. Daiby's proposition on page 

 411, and I think that such a move would 

 prove verv beneficial to tlie entire bee- 

 keeping fraternity. The bee-keeper's 

 staff, as described by Mr. Andre, on page 

 295, is an entire success. I have had 17 

 swarms issue this summer, and have not 

 failed once in getting tlieni to cluster 

 nicely on the staff. Mr. Andre deserves 

 thanks from everyone who keeps bees,for 

 making his discovery public. Those who 

 have not yet tried it would do well in 

 doing so ; for it certainly saves a great 

 deal of labor and inconvenience. 1 wish 

 to thank Mr. Andre. I put S colonies of 

 bees into my cellar last fall, and they 

 came through the winter safely, and were 

 quite strong in the spring. 1 bought 13 

 more colonies in the spring, which were 

 weak, but I built tliem up as fast as cir- 

 cumstances would permit, and they are 

 all in a fair condition now, and honey is 

 coming in fast. I have so far increased 

 my apiary to 33 colonies by natural 

 swarming. 



Hiving Swarms.— Dr. D. C. Spencer, 

 Augusta, ND Wis., on July 10, 1885, 

 writes : 



1 allow each of my colonies of bees to 

 swarm naturally, at least once. I have 

 tall trees near the apiary, and hitherto the 

 swarms have given me much trouble by 

 clustering very high on inaccessible limbs, 

 and on the bodies of the trees ; but now 

 having made myself a "bee-keeper's 

 staff," such as described on page 29.5, by 

 Mr. J. H. Andre, I no longer have any 

 difficulty in that line. It was a perfect 

 success on its first trial, and I have no 

 failures with it. I most heartily recom- 

 mend the " staff " to all the bee-keeping 

 fraternity. 



Bees Ready for the Harvest.— S. I. 



Freeborn, Ithaca, p Wis., on July 15, 

 1885, writes : 



The condition of my apiary to-day is, 

 that KiO of the 180 weak colonies have 

 grown strong enough so that the upper 

 stories for extracting, have been added. 

 They have also furnished bees for 1.30 

 nuclei colonies, most of whose queens 

 will be laying this week. Basswood is 

 just opening, and if we can have good 

 weather while it lasts, the misfortune of 

 the winter of 1884-8.5 will be retrieved. 



Bee-Bread, Wintering Bees, etc. — 



James Heddon, Dowagiac, P Mich., 

 says : 



I wish to say to Prof. Cook that of 

 course I knew that my bees had consumed 

 a 3&-pound sack of Hour in five hours, and 

 that they put it in the cells in the form of 

 bee-bread ; but that is only an exception. 

 I did not know that it was ever made of 

 "the spores of fungi." I think 1 spoke 

 practically correct, when I said that it was 

 "always pollen." Mr. Ira Barber has my 

 thanks for the plain out-and-out way in 

 which he tries to help us in the wintering 



problem. He does not, however, seem to 

 understand me. I do not wish to mix 

 honey and pollen in the combs, hut in the 

 same cells. 1 believe that if the liciuid 

 food of bees, during winter, be replete 

 with nitrogen, a fecal aecunuilation will 

 result, no matter how warm the repository 

 may be kept. Again, 1 did not have ref- 

 erence to speckitig the hives in confine- 

 ment, but luy bees did not discharge at 

 all, when put out for their first fliglit. I 

 shall be pleased to meet Mr. Barber, as 

 well as many others of the fraternity, at 

 our Detroit Convention, and discuss this 

 and many other questions in a place and 

 manner that will hold us right to the 

 point, and a clear understanding of each 

 others views. I trust that we will part 

 wiser and better acquainted. 



Bees Doing Better.— G. M. Doolittle, 

 Borodino,© N. Y., on July 11,188.5, 

 says; 



Bees are doing some better now, and a 

 few colonies have commenced work in 

 the sections. Basswood blossoms are the 

 very earliest to open, and the next 3 weeks 

 will tell the story tor 1885 in this section. 



Sweet Clover. — N. H. Rowland, 

 Keene,© Ky., writes : 



I send you a plant to be named, as I 

 have never before noticed anything like 

 it. During tlie middle of ttie day the 

 numerous bees, files, and other insects, 

 which visit a little patch of it, 30 or 40 

 feet square, almost present the appearance 

 of a swarm. The seed was sown by an 

 Italian, who does not know the name of 

 the plant. 



[It is Melilotus alba— sweet clover— and 

 an excellent honey-plant.— Ed.] 



Bees Destroyed by a Cyclone.— Mrs. 



S. C. Tyler, Utica.5 Mo., on July 13, 

 1885, writes : 



I have not a good report to make, 1 am 

 son'y to say. We had a cyclone here a 

 short time ago which destroyed all the 

 bees I had left; but not discouraged, I 

 determined to try again, so a good neigh- 

 bor made me a present of one of the 

 largest swarms 1 ever saw, and I have 

 begun at the bottom again. I would as 

 soon do without my regular rations as to 

 do without bees, I love them so. Every 

 colony I lost seemed as sad to me as a 

 funeral. 



Poor Honey Season.— Wm. Bitzer, 

 Wheeling, 5 ^V. Va., on July 9, 1885, 

 says : 



We are having a poor honey season ; 

 white clover is a total failure, caused by 

 the drouth of last summer, and the intense 

 cold of the past winter. Basswood— what 

 few trees we have in this section— yielded 

 immensely, and we will probably get a 

 very small surplus. 



Building Queen-Cells.- Maria Haw- 

 kins, CedarlJapids,otIowa, on July 9, 

 1885, writes : 



On July 1 1 put a swarm of bees into a 

 hive in which the bees had died during 

 the last winter, and the frames were filled 

 with combs all ready for them to go to 

 work. In some way their queen was lost, 

 as they were brought a short distance 

 froni a neighbor's. They were very un- 

 easy, and did not want to stay, but I 

 closed the entrance to the hive, and the 

 next morning I saw that they had con- 

 cluded to remain, as they were very busy 

 carrying out dead bees, and getting ready 

 to keep house. On the fifth day 1 looked 



them over, and found three queen-cells, 

 two of them were capped over, and the 

 third had a larva in it nearly ready for 

 capping. Now, can some experienced 

 bee-keeper tell me where they procured 

 the eggs and brood with which to fill those 

 queen-cells ? There was not another 

 sign of brood about the hive, and but very 

 little honey. On the next day I obtained 

 a queen-cell from a neighbor, that was 

 nearly ready to hatch, and inserted it in a 

 frame of comb, and destroyed the queen- 

 cell that was not capped over ; and to day 

 —the ninth day— I examined them and 

 found that the queen-cell which I inserted, 

 was hatched, but I failed to find the queen 

 in the hive, and they are still making 

 (|ueencells, having four large ones all 

 capped, and the fifth one commenced, and 

 but very little honey in the hive. lama 

 novice in bee-keepnig, and any Informa- 

 tion that I can gain from the experience 

 of others, will be thankfully received. 



Bnmble-Bees. — Mr. Wm. Muth- 

 Rasmussen, Independence,o+ Calif., 

 writes thus ; 



On page 370, throughout the article on 

 "Fertilization of Flowers by Bees, etc." 

 is a curious error, no doubt committed by 

 the translator, in that the words "drone" 

 and "drones" are used a number of times 

 where, I suppose, the original writer 

 meant " humble-bees." Am I not correct 

 about it ? 



[You are evidently correct. The mis- 

 take was made by the translator, and 

 overlooked by the proof-reader.— Ed.] 



Sheep Driving Bees.— Dr. H. Basse, 

 Delaware,© Ohio., on July 11, 1885, 

 writes ; 



I think that the Bee-Keepers' Union is 

 just the thing we need. I am well pleased 

 with the Constitution, and the officers 

 nominated. We all know that there is 

 strength in u.nion, and that "doubtful 

 things are highly uncertain." Who would 

 have " thunk " it that a sheep could drive 

 a fiock of hees, and so worry itself that it 

 would die six months after tlie adventure? 

 Verily, verily, " truth is stranger than 

 Action." When I first read about the law- 

 suit, I felt like laughing, but since think- 

 ing over the subject, I am led to feel more 

 serious over the matter ; for who knows 

 what day some ferocious sheep may come 

 along and drive my entire apiary (of 126 

 colonies) into some other man's yard, just 

 for pure " meanness ;" for this is just as 

 likely to happen any day ! or on any 

 bright moonligiit night ! as the adventure 

 with the sheep and bees for which our 

 fello-.v-bee-keeper, Mr. Freeborn, is sued. 

 I know whereof I speak, for I have kept 

 bees and sheep for the past 45 years, and 

 I know their Iiabits. 



Bee-Lawsuits, etc.— T. Frank King, 

 Newville,? Pa,, on July 9, 1885, 

 writes : 



I aiD in favor of the defense organiza- 

 tion ; It is a move in the right direction. 

 1 know something about this kind of 

 malicious prosecution, as I was a witness 

 in our county court a few yfears ago in a 

 bee-suit. After examining five witnesses 

 on the side of the plaintiff, the case was 

 withdrawn, the defendant going to the 

 expense and trouble of moving his apiary 

 of about 30 colonies. It will be to the 

 interest of all bee-keepers to enroll their 

 names as members of the Bee-Keepers' 

 Union. I have .52 colonies of bees ; I lost 

 15 the past spring, with bee-diarrhea. 

 The weather here has been very dry, and 

 I do not look for more than half a crop of 

 honey this season. 



